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basis On the 7th December 1968 at a meeting
of the National Executive Committee of the
Pre school Playgroups Association the Con
stitution of the Hounslow branch was given
official approval At the first annual meeting
of the branch Dr EN Christie was elected
toad hoc membership of the Committee thereby
establishing a valuable link between the Health
Department and this voluntary Association which
is also concerned with the needs of the under
five s
The scope of the 1948 Act was extended by
two Ministry circulars in the autumn following
the amendments to the Nurseries and Child
Minders Regulation Act 1948 under Section 60
of the Health Services and Public Health Act
1968
The former Minister of Health stated in one
of his circulars that the new amendments will
result in additional demands on the time and
services of local authority staff at a period
when authorities have been asked to keep down
current expenditure Our experience has
abundantly proved his point. Mothers involved
in the pre school playgroups movement must
recognise a need for self-education and further
training for playgroup leaders A start has been
made by this department and the Education
Department in arranging for appropriate lectures
and in considering ways and means of aiding
individual child-minders who find it impractical
or impossible to attend courses
Unregistered Child Minders
During the greater part of the year women undertaking
the day care of not more than two
children under five years of age have not been
subject to formal supervision but health
visitors have kept some watch on children
placed with such unregistered child minders
To encourage such persons to accept some
degree of supervision and to bring the children
to the child health clinic once a month and
subject to the minder and the chi Id s mother
accepting and abiding by the scheme the
council pay the minder one shilling a day for
each child minded The scheme has not been
popular and at the end of October only two
unregistered child minders were participating
On the 1st November the Department of Health
and Social Security introduced revised
legislation concerning the day care of preschool
children Section 60 of the Health
40
Services and Public Health Act 1968 amended
the Nurseries.and Child Minders Regulation Act
1948 in that amongst other things the Act
required a person to be registered as a Child
Minder who for reward receives or proposes to
receive into her home one or more children under
the age of five years to be looked after for a total
of two hours in the aggregate or more in any day
or for any longer period not exceeding six days
to whom she is not related As a result the
category of women previously known as unregistered
child minders became subject to the requirements
of the new legislation At the end of the year one
of the afore mentioned persons who previously
participated in the old scheme had made application
for registration as a Child Minder in compliance
with the new Act and the other person ceased to
continue providing day care facilities for unrelated
pre-school children
Family Planning
Family planning advice and treatment is provided by
the Family Planning Association in the council s
clinics At the end of the year twelve weekly
sessions were being held at five clinics In addition
a weekly marital problems clinic was held at
Isleworth Health Centre No charge is made to the
Family Planning Association for the use of the
premises
The council accepts financial responsibility for
charges made by the Family Planning Association
in respect of patients referred to them by the
council s medical officers where it was considered
that pregnancy would be detrimental to health
The following clinic statistics have been
provided by the Family Planning Association (taken
from the F P A s 3rd annual report)